Port Sliders with Goat Cheese and Caramelized Onions

Craft brewing is where our attention has been the last couple of years but wine making is how we started. We’ve bottled several varietals over the last 5 years but our favorite – our absolute best – is the port. It’s a sweet ruby with dark berry and chocolate notes.

It’s a rockstar. And with ~20% acohol content, it’s easy (craaazy easy) to drink. And it’s awesome to cook with. After rephotographing the Red Wine Burgers recently, we decided to make some fancy burgers using our port.

We simmered our 2010 port to a reduction, concentrating the flavors and burning off some of the alcohol, and then mixed the reduction into some lightly seasoned lean ground beef. That port-infused beef went onto the grill as slider patties. And then we topped those sliders with sweet caramelized onions, a tangy crumbled goat cheese, and the remaining port reduction, sandwiched on an “Everything” slider bun.

Fancy burger, indeed!

And… then we both ate more sliders than we would have if I had just made normal-sized burgers. For some reason, it’s hard to resist small plate- and individually-served dishes. Yes, but they’re so small! I can probably have just one more, right?